Nearly eight years ago (to the day!) we told you about the online game that tests your vocabulary skills, and donates 10 grains of rice to the World Food Programme (also known as the World Food Program, and WFP) for every correct response that you give. FreeRice.com is legitimate, and the real deal, and we’re delighted to see that they are still going strong!
As FreeRice.com founder John Breen explained when we interviewed him back in 2008, he founded FreeRice.com when he realized he wanted something better to do with his breaks than read the latest celebrity gossip online. He wanted something educational, and useful.
Educational it is, with vocabularly levels for people of all ages – so it’s a great way to boost your kids’ vocabularies as well as your own! (Bonus: this is a completely kid-friendly, straight-forward, and safe site!)
And useful it certainly is, because FreeRice.com has been donating to the World Food Programme since 2007, and the World Food Programme is on the ground in such troubled spots as Syria [Page no longer available – we have linked to the archive.org version instead], Yemen, and India.
In fact, it was the FreeRice.com and WFP connection that facilitated yours truly being able to spearhead an effort to raise more than $14,000 for the people of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, when, in 2008, Tajikistan experienced the worst winter in recent history, in which it was reported that “Newborn babies, infants, and the elderly are suffering most. Doctors and nurses in maternity wards deliver babies by candlelight in dark, freezing rooms. According to official figures, 232 newborn babies died in maternity wards last month.”
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The combination of our contact with FreeRice.com, and their putting us in touch with the World Food Programme led to the Dushanbe Relief Effort of 2008, in which we sent more than fourteen thousand dollars to the World Food Programme’s Tajikistan relief effort.
All of this to say that FreeRice.com puts their money where the hungry mouths are (see what we did there?)
Actually, FreeRice.com puts their sponsors’ money where the hungry mouths are. Because that’s the answer to “How does FreeRice.com raise the money to give to the World Food Programme?”
Whenever you answer a question correctly, a sponsoring ad is displayed at the bottom of the next set of questions. These sponsors pay advertising fees to FreeRice.com, who in turn passes the money for your winnings along to the WFP.
So just how much has FreeRice.com actually helped those in need?
In 2011, FreeRice.com posted that:
In Myanmar we helped feed people whose lives were affected by cyclone Nargis, and in the immediate aftermath to feed 750,000 cyclone affected people.
In Bangladesh we helped 27,000 refugees from Myanmar sheltering at Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh.
In Nepal we helped feed 108,000 Bhutanese refugees.
In Cambodia we helped feed 13,500 women for almost 2 months as part of WFP’s Mother and Child Health programme (monthly take-home rations of 4 kg of rice for pregnant and nursing women).
In Uganda we fed 66,000 school children.
So far, in 2015, they have donated 2,565,852,500 grains of rice to the WFP (of course what this really means is that they have donated the funds for that rice to the WFP).
Think this is a worthy cause? So do we.
So head on over to FreeRice.com, test and enrich your vocabulary, and feed someone in need, all without leaving your computer.
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Maybe that is why I am not still doing it! This is the third time I
have filled out the basic information. I tried to post the comment
at the wrong time. This is my last shot!